Why I Love Yoga

Lately, I can't get enough yoga.  It's become something I crave.

I can't do this, but wish I could!

One of the best ways I've found to decompress and "get out of my head" is to practice yoga.  Actually, any exercise helps, but yoga is different than any other exercise for me.

The best way I can think to describe it is that it's like wringing the day out of my muscles.  It challenges my body AND my mind in a way unlike any volleyball practice ever could.  When I focus on holding a pose that is pushing me outside my comfort zone, I can literally feel my stress leaving me....bubbling to the surface and being released, leaving me cleansed and lighter than the moment before.  The pose becomes a channel for negative energy to be cleared out and replaced with new strength from within.  It's one of the really beautiful ways I've been able to experience energy exchange within myself....

...and no, it's not just because I live in Eugene, Oregon (a home to lots of yoga-practicing-hippies) :)

All this talk about energy, cleansing, release - I believe it because I experience it.  And the beauty of yoga is that everyone's experience is unique and his/her own.

Not to mention all the physical benefits of yoga - the flexibility, the strengthening.  If I had my yoga teacher's body, I'd wear more spandex to the grocery store. :)

Brian has started coming with me to yoga on Saturday mornings now, so it's also become a shared activity that allows us to spend time together and decompress on our individual mats in the same space.  It also needs to be said that as long as he leaves class with me, I'm ok with him thinking the teacher's hot...which is the case :)

What are you thoughts on yoga?  Have you experienced what I'm talking about?

(Here's where Brian and I go, in case you're interested: http://www.willowtreeyogastudio.com)